The films for the 2025 Tampere Film Festival’s National and International Competitions, as well as the Generation XYZ Competition for genre films, have been selected. A total of 7,678 films were submitted for the competition categories, from which 123 films from as many as 60 different countries were chosen (all selected films can be seen here: Competitions).
The competition categories will feature short films under 30 minutes in length, and there is also a separate category for films over 30 minutes in the National Competition. The selected films will be screened at the festival from 5–9 March and will also be available online on the Filmchief platform.
The Award Ceremony, where the best films in the competition categories as well as the winners of the audience vote will be honored, will take place on Saturday, 8 March, at Olympia. The event will also feature the presentation of the Sustainability Award Verso, which promotes a more sustainable film industry and responsible practices, as well as the Sylvi Scriptwriting Prizes by Writers Guild of Finland.
National Competition
This year, a total of 301 films applied for the National Competition, with 37 being selected. Among these films, seven are over 30-minute documentaries, and 30 are under 30-minute short films.
The National Competition will feature a significant number of works by directors who have previously succeeded at the festival – including four Risto Jarva Award-winning directors and several past Main Prize winners. In the category for films over 30 minutes, the competition will include, for example, the 2011 Risto Jarva winner Jan Ijäs’ Two Forests (Finland, 2025) and the 2003 Risto Jarva winner Veli Granö’s Circus Tuomento (Finland, 2025).
In the under-30-minute category, films include the 2001 Risto Jarva and Main Prize winner PV Lehtinen’s IURIMA – A Tale of Three Fishermen (Finland, 2025) and the 2021 Risto Jarva winner Marjo Levlin’s Underdog (Finland, 2024). Also featured are the 2024 and 2015 Main Prize winner Risto-Pekka Blom’s Vieraslaji (Finland, 2024), as well as the 2022 Main Prize winner (shared with Rukia Mahamed and Iqlaas Osman) Anton Tammi’s GLORIA (Finland, 2024).
However, regarding the National Competition, the selection jury is concerned about the cuts to the cultural sector and the resulting resource shortages:
– The opportunities for rising talents to create currently are and will continue to be very limited – there is expertise, but no resources. This is also visible in the applicants to the National Competition. Short films are an important part of the development of the Finnish film industry, so such a development trend is not desirable, says Jukka-Pekka Laakso, festival director and member of the selection jury at Tampere Film Festival.
International and Generation XYZ Competition
A total of 6,762 films applied for Tampere Film Festival’s largest competition, the International Competition, with 64 films selected for screening from 56 countries. This competition is highly acclaimed internationally, and the award-winning films in the competition also have the opportunity to become nominees for the Oscars® and BAFTAs, such as last year’s 2024 Grand Prix winner, Nina Gantz’s Wander to Wonder (The Netherlands, France, Belgium, 2023), which is currently competing for an Oscar® award in the category of animated short film.
This year, the International Competition will feature, among others, a film that has already received an Oscar® nomination, Nebojša Slijepčević’s The Man Who Could Not Remain Silent (Croatia, France, Bulgaria, Slovenia, 2024). From Finland, Fish River Anthology (Finland, 2024), an animation by Veera Lamminpää, which is also part of the National Competition, will compete in the International Competition.
According to the selection jury, the process for choosing films for the International Competition was not easy this year:
– Around the world, technical possibilities are constantly improving, and a massive amount of high-quality films are being produced. As always, the selectors are looking for more surprising and innovative approaches that stand out from the crowd, comments Laakso.
A record of 615 films applied for the Generation XYZ Competition, with 22 films selected. The selection includes films from 15 different countries. Generation XYZ is a competition focused on thriller, sci-fi, horror, action, and fantasy films, and has been held since 2021.
The 55th Tampere Film Festival will be celebrated 5–9 March 2025
Tampere Film Festival brings all cinephiles together for the 55th time to celebrate short films and documentaries for five days in 5–9 March. The festival has already announced first themes of the programme, such as Radical Care and Tampere UG, special selections from Mongolia and Lithuania, and the retrospective of Pirjo Honkasalo. The full programme will be published and individual tickets will go on sale on 11 February.
More information on the website: www.tamperefilmfestival.fi
Photo: Érica Dahlström-Dezonne
